Adobe Partners with Companies to Help Track People via Devices for Ads

Adobe has shaken hands with around 60 companies who joined together for this cause of following us around online. Some major brands included in this deal are Sprint, Subway, and even the NFL!

When people hear the name “Adobe” they think of it as a company that’s involved with photoshop, PDF files, MP4, etc. Now let us talk about how this new partnership is going to work. Adobe is working with top companies to make your online experience more personalized. They will do this by filtering out adds with products/services that you’ve already bought or will never buy. In fact, Adobe will have files that can tell you’re the same person by your device. For example, if you have a PC that you always log into or an Ipad that has your account on it.

The initiative comes amid heightened privacy sensitivities after reports that Facebook allowed a political consulting firm, Cambridge Analytica, to harvest data on millions of Facebook users to influence elections… see previous post “Facebook Under Fire”. Facebook also has been criticized for collecting call and text logs from phones running Google’s Android system.

The company timed Wednesday’s announcement to a digital marketing conference it is hosting this week in Las Vegas. Adobe executives said they believed their initiative offers strong privacy safeguards, though many people aren’t so convinced after what recently happened with Facebook and Cambridge Analytica.

All this might feel creepy, but such cross-device tracking is already commonly done by matching attributes such as devices that from the same internet location, or IP address. Consumers typically have little control over it.

However, in taking an opt-out approach, which is common in the industry, Adobe assumes that users consent, and it places the burden on consumers to learn about this initiative and to figure out how they can opt out of it.